Statement of NYC Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway Reminding New York City Water and Sewer Customers to Sign Up for Direct Debit To Get a 2% Discount on Their Water Bills

"The new Fiscal Year 2011 water and sewer rate goes into effect today, and there is some immediate good news for our customers. Starting today, customers who sign up to pay their water bills online through our direct debit program will receive a 2% discount on their water bills this year. For the three or four minutes it takes to enroll, a single family home that uses the Citywide average of 80,000 gallons of water this year will save approximately $16 on their water charges. This will provide some additional relief to New Yorkers, many of whom are struggling in these challenging economic times.

To sign up, customers should visit www.nyc.gov/dep and follow the simple instructions. I encourage all of our water and sewer customers to sign up for the program, a one-time discount opportunity that will last for the entire year. More than 400 customers have already chosen to take advantage of this discount, and will begin saving on quarterly bills issued after July 1. DEP remains committed to doing everything possible to keep water and sewer rates as low as possible for our 834,000 customers, and we have been taking aggressive steps to do that. We have already enacted an across-the-board 8% budget cut that will generate approximately $80 million in annual savings, and we are in the midst of a line-by-line review of our capital program to find ways to trim costs. We will continue our efforts to find ways to do more with less."

DEP manages the City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of water each day to more than 9 million residents, including 8 million in New York City. New York City’s water is delivered from a watershed that extends more than 125 miles from the City, and comprises 19 reservoirs, and three controlled lakes. Approximately 7,000 miles of water mains, tunnels and aqueducts bring water to homes and businesses throughout the five boroughs, and 7,400 miles of sewer lines take wastewater to 14 in-City treatment plants.